The Island Editorial

Bang, bang, bang

28 February 2017

 

The country is not yet free from terrorism. Thankfully, the JVP and the LTTE were defeated militarily in 1989 and 2009 respectively, but the law-abiding citizens are still living in fear of a different brand of terrorism. The underworld has emerged stronger than ever. In what looked like a scene from a Hollywood action flick, a group of unidentified gunmen opened fire on a prison vehicle in Kalutara yesterday morning. Seven persons including a notorious underworld character, who was targeted by the assailants and two prison guards perished in the ambush.

Daring attacks on prison vehicles are of not recent origin, though. Ratnaweera, a hardcore criminal, who once terrorised Hambantota, was pulled out of a paddy wagon which was stopped by his rivals in Ridiyagama and done to death in the early 2000s. A jailer also died in that Wild West style attack. Another underworld figure was targeted inside a prison vehicle last year in Dematagoda. He was lucky to escape death. There have also been several grenade attacks inside court houses owing to gang warfare.

Sadly, the law and order situation hasn’t improved in spite of the conclusion of the war and the 2015 regime change. Given the ease with which underworld attacks are carried out and armed assailants flee, how vulnerable the ordinary public vis-à-vis powerful crime syndicates goes without saying. They live in well fortified houses which resemble prisons with high walls and steel bars while criminals are moving about freely. Successive governments have done precious little to protect the citizenry against criminals who have demonstrated their ability to strike at will.

The prison authorities have said they had asked for police protection for their vehicle carrying dangerous criminals on Monday, but to no avail. Police have denied this claim. Both parties are playing Sri Lanka’s national sport—the blame game. It is doubtful whether regular police personnel would have been able to face the gunmen involved in yesterday’s incident even if they had been deployed in sufficient numbers. Only the STF is capable of countering such threats effectively.

The Joint Opposition (JO) yesterday blamed the present administration for having disbanded the prisons intelligence unit. Whether the JO is telling us the truth or not we don’t know. But, there is little such an outfit can do to ward off well organised criminal gangs.

Decades of armed conflicts have left the country awash with illegal firearms and the underworld is full of trigger-happy military deserters and former terrorists. Lapses on the part of police and links between criminals and politicians have made it well nigh impossible to neutralise the underworld.

It may be recalled that during the previous regime, when the STF, carrying out a raid in Negombo, was about to descend on an SLFP politician with underworld links, the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa rushed there and gave the cornered party man a bear hug, thus sending a very clear message to the police commandos. Today, that politico is in the SLFP’s Maithri faction, which is advocating good governance!

The present administration came to power, promising to restore the rule of law among other things. Its big guns flogged the issue of the rising crime rate under the Rajapaksa government very effectively to turn public opinion against their political rivals. But, there has been no let-up in the underworld operations; criminals who had fled the country during the previous administration returned after the change of government in 2015 and some of them openly clashed in Colombo in the run-up to the last general election. Police are busy doing political work and criminals are having a field day.

It is incumbent upon the government to remain focused on the need to neutralise the underworld and protect the citizenry instead of faulting the media for ‘negative reporting’. The yahapalana leaders claimed during the Rajapaksa government the then rulers were protecting criminals. They are now in power and the question is why they don’t order a crackdown on the underworld to make the country safe for the ordinary people who are living in eternal fear of criminals.